Murree villagers protest supply of gas to Shahbaz’s residence

[LahoreEstate]

Saturday, November 21, 2009
By Raja Abdul Rahman

MURREE: Hundreds of villagers from different rural communities of Murree held a protest meeting against the natural gas pipeline to the bungalow of Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, MPA, at Donga Gali.

The project, now under way to provide Sui gas to the house of Hamza Shahbaz, has angered the villagers who say it is discriminatory, as the villages around Murree are not going to benefit from the project. Addressing the protesters who had gathered at the GPO, the speakers including Sardar Masood Khan Advocate, Khalid Mehmood Advocate, Masood Ahmad Butt, Abdul Raheem Abbasi, Abid Abbasi, Tariq Mehmood, Haji Zameer Abbasi, Muhammad Ali and Gul Aftab Abbasi said that the project involved uprooting of thousands of trees, which will result in ecological calamity.

The speakers said that at the time of launching the project the people of Murree were assured that the project would also benefit the villages around Murree. But despite completion of survey in this regard, so far no practical step has been taken to provide natural gas to the Murree villages. They said it was unfair to supply gas to the residence of an influential family alone. The speakers asked the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto notice of the situation.

http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=209641